Mary Campbell: History shows we need a good correctional investigator

Canadian Armed Forces troops arrive at the Kingston penitentiary on April 15, 1971 to help prison oficials after inmates took control of the main cell block. The riot ended on April 18 with two inmates dead and 11 injured. Peter Bregg / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Canada’s penitentiary system is on the cusp of another blow to its public safety mandate. As noted in the Citizen recently, the government has ousted the current correctional investigator (CI) for no apparent reason.

Howard Sapers, the incumbent CI since his appointment in 2004, ironically excels at meeting all the criteria listed in the new advertisement for the position. And he would like to continue in the job to which he is deeply committed. Indeed he has already been reappointed twice under the Harper government, reasonably suggesting high and non-partisan regard for his job performance. So what’s up?

To understand the critical importance of the CI function, you need only look at how and why it was originally created. April 1971 saw one of the bloodiest penitentiary riots in a period when bloody penitentiary riots were all too common. Over a period of five days, Kingston Penitentiary was in chaos as inmates seized control. Cell blocks were destroyed, steel beds and porcelain fixtures ripped out of the walls with bare hands. Staff and inmates were taken hostage by a small group. Two inmates died at their hands. When some semblance of control returned, the alleged ringleaders were transferred to the newly opened Millhaven Penitentiary nearby. Over 100 inmates were forced to enter Millhaven on foot through a gauntlet of correctional officers who beat them with riot sticks.

A Commission of Inquiry was subsequently convened, and reported in April 1972 to the Commissioner of Corrections. Their report (commonly called the Swackhamer Report) identified no single cause of the riot, but rather a number of contributing factors. One of the most important ones was the lack of an effective, timely grievance mechanism for inmates to raise and resolve problems in a non-violent way. Among inmates isolated from society without access to any formal complaint mechanism, problems that might be minor to someone on the outside would fester and grow. Combined with other substandard conditions such as access to programs or treatment, even the best intentions of staff could not contain the tinderbox that “KP” became.

One of the results was the creation of the Office of the Correctional Investigator, with a clear mandate to respond to inmate problems. CI staff visit all the penitentiaries regularly, meet with inmates and staff, respond to inmate letters, and most of all try to resolve problems quickly and satisfactorily. In the CI’s Annual Reports, some of the complaints that reflect urgent or systemic issues are the subject of recommendations to the Correctional Service. As with all review agencies, the recommendations have never been binding, but the hope is that persuasive evidence and a collaborative spirit would result in action.

Sapers is only the third CI in 43 years. His office responds to thousands of inmates a year, and identifies systemic issues that cry out for redress. Misuse of solitary confinement and the preventable death of young Ashley Smith are only two of the matters he has been vocal about. The very nature of the job means that he is a constant thorn in someone’s side.

The flip side of that is that he is the last resort for thousands of inmates who have no lawyer on call, no resources to go to court, no friends or family standing by. Keeping the lid on what is intrinsically a volatile and violent environment requires a CI who is knowledgeable, balanced, sensitive to many realities – or as the job poster states, “objective, impartial, fair, possessing sound judgement and strong professional ethics, innovative, flexible, resilient, tactful, discrete, and a person of integrity.”

What is not needed is a “political friend” of the likes of many of this government’s appointments. It’s not just inmates’ safety that depends on this, it’s your safety, ultimately.

Mary E. Campbell retired in 2013 as the Director General of the Corrections & Criminal Justice Directorate at the Department of Public Safety.

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